These are real steps forward. It's important to remember, however, that the big prize isn't really about getting more strategies published, extracting promises to review legislation, or breathless announcements about how many data sets are now online. The game is won only when open is the default position for public data – where openness is set out in the admirably clear Open Definition, and public data means everything bar that which would prejudice privacy, national security or sensitive advice to Ministers.

We are not there yet, but there is still hope. In his foreword to the white paper, Francis Maude writes "we are unflinching in our belief that data that can be published should be published". The white paper goes on to talk about "a culture that supports a presumption to publish... where data owners in the public sector look to release the data they hold... as part of business as usual".

As is so often the case when technology meets the public sector, the road ahead is more about people than it is about hardware, software or systems. Here then are three big challenges to overcome on the next phase of the UK's open data journey:

Embedding the presumption to publish. The first pledge in the first chapter of the Conservative Technology Manifesto said "we will create a powerful new right to government data". Until this is achieved, we remain too reliant on forward thinking officials to get data out – fine while it lasts, but not the most sustainable approach if data really is the raw material for the 21st century. At present there is no strong incentive – carrot or stick – for public sector organisations to live by the presumption to publish. The government is grappling with a similar sort of cultural challenge as it tries to embed digital-by-default as the new operating model for the public sector.

Staying strategic. The recent surge of activity on open data has put an unprecedented number of bodies, boards, interactions and interdependencies in play (see page 18 in the DSB / PDG Terms of Reference for a simplified version of the landscape). These will need to find a way to work effectively together, and to avoid getting too distracted by micro demands at the expense of forcing a transformation in the way the public sector thinks about data. We also need to exercise caution whenever conversations start to edge toward sharing, linking or anonymising personal data. This is an important topic that merits more attention – but is well outside classic open data territory and the two should not be conflated.

None of these will be easy to achieve. Nevertheless, the open data revolution has the potential to deliver significant economic, social and political benefits. And the longer transparency beds in, and the further technology advances, the harder it will be for things to go backward. Sooner or later we will reach a world where public data is truly open. We just need to decide whether we are gutsy enough to head straight for it.

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I suggest the next big move is "Open Source Everything." The opens cannot evolve in isolation from one another. Open Data needs Open Access, Open Cloud, Open Hardware, Open Softare, Open Standards, etc.

I publish a free round-up every night, Open Source Everything Highlights, at http://tinyurl.com/OSE-ALL, the above article is in tonight's edition. Twitter hash is #openall.

My new book, least expensive at Amazon, is THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust. Book page is http://tinyurl.com/OSE-Steele

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